CategoryPersonal

I recently started to shift my circadian rhythm from night owl into early riser. Now I manage to consistently wake up at 4AM–which I admit really extremely hard to do, but it allow me to create really useful space for myself to plan the day.

If you are one of those person that would like to try to wake up early, then these is some things that I learn can be useful to make me able to wake early in the next day:

A lot of coworker start to play with BitCoin recently, and my opinion on it is that it is senseless bullshit. And as I like senseless bullshit, I will put $1 on it and see how it goes in the next few months.

FORUFORM LEATHER SATCHEL

For decade I am a firm believer in messenger bags over backpacks, preferring the tradeoff of easy access over sore shoulder. I have several messenger bag around, but this ForuForm is the one that you can mainly spot on my shoulder for one main reason: the space is limited, so I can’t put too many things in it. It also help that it looks nice, have a pretty good build quality, and quite cheap (I get it for $35 in AliExpress Black Friday).

Macbook Pro Retina 13 – Inch (Early 2015)

This is my main computer, and its pretty darn good. It feels really useful with a lot of connectivity, elegant, and has a serious power. I think its one of the best laptop that ever existed, even better than the current MacBook Pro Touchbar, as I don’t need to bring extra dongle with me.

It was 15 past 4. you know exactly that the weather is cloudy outside. Few minutes before Gita moved to the surgery room, you spend 15 minuets to watch this Larva Cartoon shows, and you can’t stop laughing as your wife start to mimic Larva all the time – might be because the anesthesia.

4.30 and you hear his cry for the first time. In the blink of an eye your life going to change forever, what you don’t knew at that time is the joy that lay in store for you. Its the beginning of hectic, fun, and amazing time. The interlude of a lot of laugh that you going to have and you will always going to have.

You stop and start to wonder now. How could thing so small and so simple can be a very important?

I WAS BUSY MINGLING WITH MY WORK in the office when my boss suddenly talked about this new fitness app project that we have. “This is nice project Ganis, you should take a look at it. The client might require us to use React for the interface.”

Hmm, interesting. I thought.

“Technically it’s challenging,” he said as our OB hand him his Flat White. “It would incorporate various trainer into people, devise a diet schedule, sync a fitness tracking like watch.”

Davo reached into his bag and pull out black rubber then put that into the table. “Is that a watch?” I asked.

“Yes and No”.

Very interesting.

—

Months after we finished working on that project, my fiancee, Gita and I have this pet debate. Despite my persistent persuasion, she still doesn’t excited with the prospect of me having a dog – very understandable as she never have one.

Seeing that my future of my pet looks grim, I decided to I pull out one of the oldest trick in the book.

“Wanna bet?” I said. “About?” “If I’m able to slash 10kg before our marriage, I would be able to have a dog named Bruno in our house.” “10kg?” “Yes” “Within two month” “Yes” “Deal”

I’m not really sure about that bet actually. It’s quite tall order and I never bother that much I’m getting fatter and fatter over the day. But I guess putting something in the line as a bet might help me get motivated, but that alone is not enough. I need a trainer.

—

A few weeks later, I get my own fitness tracking. I don’t really like watch so I get UP3 from JawBone that looks like an accessories and rather unassuming. On the first day, reading my goal, my habit, height, and weight, Up says that ten thousand steps daily, I learned, is the amounts that needed to me to get fit. 8 hours a day is the amount of sleep that I need to get. 8 glasses of water per day is mandatory. And oh, I should get plenty of vegetables and fruit.

TEN THOUSAND STEPS DAILY, I LEARNED, IS THE AMOUNTS THAT NEEDED TO ME TO GET FIT. 8 HOURS A DAY IS THE AMOUNT OF SLEEP THAT I NEED TO GET. 8 GLASSES OF WATER PER DAY IS MANDATORY.

I started to wear my Up everyday, and every time it tingle to mark an achievement, I feel so good. I began pacing around a lot when I’m waiting something. I charge it daily and found it pretty durable against the rain. I move around in the office as I work with multiple project and start to jog upstairs downstairs. Its getting even better as there is a feature that allow me to challenge some random people for the steps taken ever 3 days.

Ha! Competition!

First week, I’m averaging 4k steps avery day – and lost all of my battle. Second week I won 3 battles and start averaging 8k. I look back at that time and laugh. That’s only about 8km, but its not bad if you are 20kg overweight and snacking potato chip every night. On the third week, I get my first 10k and started trounce people right and left. 10 thousands seems a lot, but you can cover that distance by walking around 1 hour a day and do your regular activity.

My regular route is around Kraton, as I don’t fancy the idea of getting bitten when running in the jungle. But even though the route is pretty simple, I’ve seen all kinds of things I wouldn’t normally have come across. Rainbow in the morning, shortcut to the Sultan palace, hidden market in a random street, an infant try to escape from his house but stuck because he can’t open the gate. Sometimes the view is cringe worthy but most of the time it makes me smile.

Not too shabby view for morning run.

It’s been a month now since I get the Up. I lose 9kg and getting back in shape again. My trousers start to become loose and my life become something orderly. Things looks good until 5 days ago, I notice that I develop an irritation on my left wrist as I wear it too much. So in order to heal it, I need to take it off for a couple of days.

And suddenly I lost motivation. Walking 10 kilometers, or even running up the stairs and back, suddenly seemed pointless, since, without the steps being counted and registered, what use were they? This then put me into perspective. Is this little device would own me? Feels like there is a dot in front of me at the moment that lead me into everything I do. Every little steps count. It would be a very bitter joke if that happen though, as I hate dot. I need to remove dot once in a while, and reboot so that you would have different experience in your limited lifetime.

I promise that someday in few months, I would pass this little device to one other person. But this morning I put Up into my right wrist and start to left early in the morning, practically running to make up for the lost time.